The present invention relates to a discarded article processing system for carrying out treatments or processings for discarded articles (processings for making it possible to restore the discarded articles as resources, i.e., recycle processing and waste disposal processing).
Heretofore, discarded articles such as discarded electric appliances for home use are collected and processed by dealers entrusted by a local government and junk dealers engaged in garbage or waste processing business. In such discarded articles, some parts of metals such as iron, aluminum and the like are recycled as restored materials or substances. However, in the present state of situtation, most of the discarded articles are disposed of for the reclamation or landfill without undergoing any processing or treatment or after fragmentation or cremation (incineration). As a consequence, there have arisen serious environmental problems. By way of example, in conjunction with the reclamation or landfill, there may be mentioned a problem of shortage of land or lot required therefor and problems of soil contamination and water pollution. Similarly, cremation of the discarded articles encounters serious problems such as air pollution, global warming due to generation of CO2 and the like. Such being the circumstances, there exists a great social demand for the efforts for promoting the recycle of the discarded articles (reuse of the discarded articles as resources) in order to reduce the amount of wastes or make the most of the fossil fuel which is naturally limited.
There can be conceived various reasons why promotion of the recycle of the discarded articles such as discarded appliances for home use or proper waste disposal processing has made little progress, one of the major reasons for which can be explained by the fact that information necessary for realizing the recycle of the discarded articles as collected and the proper disposal of the wastes is scarcely available. In practice, attempts for recycle processing of the discarded articles or proper wastage disposal actually encounter difficulty in that the method or means for realizing such processings can not be determined because of lack of the information concerning the materials or substances from which the discarded articles are made as well as the information concerning presence or absence of harmful and/or hazardous materials or substances in the discarded articles. Consequently, most of the discarded articles are disposed of as the wastes. In the present states of the art, the information required for carrying out the recycle processing method for the discarded articles and the proper waste disposal processing method is difficult to acquire. By way of example, any one of the manufactured article contains little indication or information concerning a disassembling method, component parts and materials thereof. On the other hand, the manufacturer affords no system or facility for presenting such information. For the reasons mentioned above, many or most of the discarded articles are disposed of as wastage without undergoing any proper or appropriate recycle processing.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a manufactured article,recycling system for determining or deciding methods of realizing recycle processings proper for various discarded articles by making it possible to collect, process and furnish speedily a variety of information required for the processings or treatments of the discarded articles, to thereby reduce the amount of wastes and make the much of limited fossil fuel resource.
With a view to promoting the recycling of the discarded articles and realizing proper disposal processings or treatments of the discarded articles, the present invention provides a manufactured article recycling system for deciding a recycle processing for the purpose of determining capability/allowability of reuse of an article, which system includes a reading means for reading information affixed to the article, a storage means for storing a database of article reuse oriented information which bears correspondence to the information affixed to the article for reuse of the article, a recycle decision means for deciding a recycle processing for the article by referencing the article reuse oriented information of the database stored in the storage means on the basis of the information affixed to the article inputted through the reading means, and an output means for outputting result of the decision made for the article by the recycle decision means.
For effectuating the decision of the recycle processing executed by the recycle decision means, there may be established recycle rules for deciding the processing method proper or appropriate for the discarded article concerned.
Further, for facilitating reuse of the article, the article may be equipped with a memory means for storing as information concerning the article at least such information as the name of article, manufacturer name of the article, model name of the article, manufactured date, manufacturing number, and component parts of the article, and an output means for outputting the information stored in the memory means.
In the system according to the present invention, article information required for deciding the recycle processing method is made available by the reading means. As the article information to be read by the reading means, there may be mentioned the information concerning at least the name of the article, the manufacturer name of the article, the model name of the article, manufactured date, manufacture ID number, component parts of the article and the like. The reading means for inputting the information concerning the article may be at least one selected from a group which consists of a connecting means connected to the article for reading information concerning the article, a radio receiver means for receiving the information concerning the article sent out from a radio transmitter means which is provided in association with the article, a keyboard for receiving the information concerning the article through key manipulation, a mouse used for receiving the information concerning the article, a bar code reading means for reading a bar code when information concerning the article is indicated by the bar code, and a driving means for driving memory means when the information concerning the article is stored in the memory means.
The storage means may include as the database an article specifications information database for storing life limit information concerning a restoration-allowable life limit of the article, a statutory regulation/standard information database for storing statutory regulation information concerning the statutory regulations imposed on the manufactured articles on an article-by-article basis and standard information concerning the standards previously established for the manufactured articles on an article-by-article basis, a material-based recycle processing method database which stores information concerning harmfulness or hazardousness of the materials of the component parts and recycle processing methods for the materials, respectively, a part-based recycle processing method database which stores recycle processing methods for the component parts, and a market information database which stores price information on the market of used articles for the article.
The recycle decision means can make decision as to the proper recycle processing method or disposal processing method of the discarded article. For example, the recycle decision means can decide on the basis of the information concerning the article as inputted through the reading means as to whether or not the article satisfies condition that the article has a remaining life falling within the restoration-allowable life limit of the article as stored in the article specifications information database, wherein when the remaining life of the article falls within the restoration-allowable life limit, the recycle decision means issues such recycle processing decision or judgement result which indicates that the article is subject to restoration as a restored article, and if otherwise, the recycle decision means issues such recycle processing decision result while indicates that the article is subject to a disassembling processing for disassembling the article to individual component parts.
Because the discarded article processing method decided is transmitted or messaged to the discarded article processing line by the processing result output means, appropriate recycle processing can be carried out in accordance with the processing decision result. The output means may include at least one of a voice output means for generating voice information, a video information output means for generating image information and a printing means for generating printed information in order to output the results of the decision made by the recycle decision means. When the system further includes an equipment control unit for controlling facilities for executing the recycle processing on the basis of the result of decision made by the recycle decision means, it can control the equipment or facilities of the recycling factory, to thereby command the process for the disassembling works.
As is apparent from the foregoing, by virtue of the above arrangements, the system according to the present invention allows the appropriate recycle processing as well as the proper waste disposal processing, whereby reduction of the amount of wastes, suppression of generation of harmful wastes and economization of energy consumption can be achieved.